The United Arab Emirates is one of seven additional countries that have been added to France’s mandatory quarantine list, impacting Monegasque travellers passing through the French Riviera airport.
From 8th May, the French government extended its quarantine list to include Turkey, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, United Arab Emirates and Qatar in the wake of rising Covid-19 infections.
The list already included Brazil, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, India and Guyana.
According to the French government website, people arriving from one of these 12 countries can only enter France if they have “pressing grounds” for travel.
They must provide a negative PCR test carried out less than 36 hours before boarding and a sworn declaration.
Travellers will also be subject to a mandatory 10-day quarantine and provide proof of quarantine location, which will be checked by police or gendarmerie.
Those who faile to comply with the protocol are liable for a fine ranging from €1,000 to €1,300.
Productions about the storming of the US Capitol, Turkey’s gender-based violence, and the 1980s AIDS epidemic in London are among this year’s contenders for the Monte-Carlo Television Festival Awards.
For the 60th time, the television industry and its fans from around the world will gather in Monaco in June for the annual Monte-Carlo Television Festival. The in-person festival is back from 18th to 22nd following a pause in 2020 due to the coronavirus, however the event will also take on a virtual aspect for those still impacted by travel restrictions.
27 programs from 14 countries have been officially selected to compete, across the Prince Rainier III Special Prize, the News and Fiction categories.
They include It’s a Sin from the United Kingdom, the latest masterpiece from the creator of Queer as Folkwhich chronicles young friends navigating the joys, heartbreak, and outlandish parties that await them amidst the AIDS epidemic in 1980s London.
There’s also HBO’s Made for Love in the fiction category, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Alissa Nutting. The series follows Hazel Green, a thirtysomething woman on the run after 10 years in a suffocating marriage to a tech billionaire who has implanted a revolutionary monitoring device in her brain. https://youtu.be/lvWgNSLIULw
Those competing in the news category include France’s The Mysterious Origins of Covid-19, Germany’s Donald Trump’s First Attack on America and Sweden’s I am Greta.
Also up for contention in the news category is Dying to Divorce. Filmed over five years, the film takes viewers into the heart of Turkey’s gender-based violence crisis and the recent political events that have severely eroded democratic freedoms.
In the Prince Rainier III Special Prize, which recognises excellence in sustainability-focussed productions, the contenders are A World Without Meat, Amazonia: The Front Line, and Now, a film about youth and climate action.
The laureates will be revealed at a red-carpet event on the final evening of the Monte-Carlo Television Festival, the Golden Nymph Awards Ceremony, on Tuesday 22nd June at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco, in the presence of the Festival’s Honorary President, H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco.
The Official Selection of Golden Nymph Awards can be found here.
Meanwhile, this year’s Festival also includes a new international expanded business track called Pass Pro for industry executives, with in-depth panel discussions on timely topics, and keynote conversations with both in person and virtual global television leaders.
Topics include ‘Migration from Movie Theatre to Streaming’, ‘The Explosive Growth of Unscripted Content in a Streaming World’ and ‘Producing a Worldwide Phenomenon’.
“The Monte-Carlo Television Festival attracts many of the most influential executives and inspirational creatives in global entertainment today,” said Monte-Carlo Television Festival CEO Laurent Puons. “It is our intention, through the unparalleled access offered by the Pass Pro, to enable those in the industry seeking insight and guidance to learn from these exceptional leaders and propel their companies and careers up to the next level.”
Fans of Charles Leclerc will this year be able to cheer the Monegasque driver on from their own dedicated stand, after its inauguration was postponed last year with the cancellation of the Monaco Grand Prix.
Simply dubbed the Charles Leclerc Grandstand, supporters can enjoy a two-day, Saturday and Sunday package located in grandstand K where they will be offered an official signed cap and t-shirt, a Ferrari bag, the race programme and two live Zoom videoconferences from the garage or Ferrari hospitality area, where the pilot speaks directly to his fans. The cost of the package is €800.
The structure has a thousand seats, but due to health restrictions only 500 seats will be up for grabs. It is ideally situated near Turn 12, colloquially known as Tabac, which has an excellent harbour view on the track from the exit of the port to the first chicane of the swimming pool.
Leclerc isn’t the first to offer such a treat to his fans. Dutch driver Max Verstappen has a stand for his local fans as well.
But the recent successes that Leclerc has enjoyed will make this homecoming race even more special for him and his fans. He came in fourth on Sunday at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona and has been having a good season overall. The new car design that Ferrari launched this year has given the team a much-needed boost and is working out far better than last year’s extremely mixed showing.
The Monaco Grand Prix will take place on Sunday 23rd May, with race time at 2pm.
Espinasse 31 Contemporary Art Gallery has brought the works of Tomoko Nagao and Robi Walters to the Principality for the first time with an exhibition at the Meridien Hotel.
The exhibition, titled High Chroma / High Vigour, features Milanese-based Japanese artist Tomoko Nagao and London born and bred artist Robi Walters.
The works have been curated by Antonio and Thomas Castiglioni, and bring together the two artists, highlighting their unique styles and expressive vitality.
“The exhibition is an exploration of fundamental properties of art—colour, material, dimensionality, symbolism—and how they make us feel. High Chroma / High Vigour creates a space in which Tomoko and Robi’s creations coexist and balance each other, focusing on their common expression of energy through colourful displays,” explains the gallery.
Art is meant to evoke emotion, say the organisers, and to this end the exhibition hopes that visitors view the works through their relationship with the artist rather than as objects to be simply looked at.
Tomoko Nagao is known as one of the leading figures in the international Micropop art movement. She started studies in her home country of Japan before moving on to London where she attended the Chelsea College of Art. This is where her personal style was developed, and her popularity has been on the rise ever since, boasting shows at the Victoria and Albert Museum as well as various events in Italy and Japan.
She takes aim at consumerism by referencing high-end luxury brands and corporations, reminding audiences of “the energetic brightness in symbols of capitalism, such as advertisements.”
Robi Walters is a contemporary artist based in Soho, London. His colourful collages have attracted the attention of celebrity collectors such as Thandie Newton, Usain Bolt and Jillionaire, to name a few.
In 2018, Michelin-Star Chef Tom Kerridge commissioned Walters to create bespoke works for his restaurant Kerridge’s Bar & Grill at London’s Corinthia Hotel. In 2020, he was invited by Aston Martin to become their artist in residence. Walters has been named by The Telegraph as one of the top creatives in the UK, going on to win the ‘Arts and Culture’ category in the newspaper’s ‘Amazing 15’.
Walters’ work has encapsulated the spirit of transformation. By constructing mixed-media pieces with unusual materials, such as packaging from household items and broken vinyl LPs, he focuses on the practice of taking discarded objects and making them beautiful to revivify their intrinsic worth—with a creative process and product that is reminiscent of both pop art and arte povera movements.
Both artists works are hopeful and vibrant, mirroring the new hope of a return to normalcy in daily life after more than a year of pandemic conditions.
The exhibit will be on display at the Meridien Hotel until 7th June.
Blockchain, DeFi and NFT startups looking to raise funds will be able to meet with a select group of qualified investors at this year’s annual Global Blockchain Congress in Dubai in June.
The 7th edition of the flagship Global Blockchain Congress by Agora Group is taking place on 21st and 22nd June 2021 in Dubai.
The theme this year is ‘Celebrating DeFi and NFTs’ and the event will boast an impressive line-up of speakers including keynote addresses by Executive Chairman and CEO of DMCC Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Managing Partner of the Blockchain Founders Fund Aly Madhavji, Managing Editor of Cointelegraph Kristina Lucrezia Cornèr, and many more.
The event is a closed door, exclusive congress between investors and hand-picked Blockchain projects looking to raise funds. It is the only event of its kind and will bring together qualified investors – VCs, private equity firms, family offices, crypto funds and High Net Worth Individuals – with Blockchain, DeFi and NFT start-ups looking to raise funds.
“Pitches are good and all, but have you ever sat on a table for eght hours with 30 minutes of one-on-one meetings with 50 rotating investors? Agora is next level,” says Nikita Sachdev, Co-Founder of LunaPR.io. “I went to this conference last year, and it was like speed dating with investors.”
According to Agora Group, the first six editions of the Global Blockchain Congress have hosted more than 450 investors, allowing over 90 blockchain start-ups to raise millions in funds for their projects.
Topics to be covered this year include ‘What do regulators think of NFT’s?’, ‘The DeFi insurance sub-sector’, and ‘Covid’s impact on the future of Blockchain’.
Only 15 Blockchain and DeFi start-ups will be introduced to around 60 investors with a budget of over $5 billion.
To participate, apply here: http://bit.ly/The7thGBC
The Princess Charlene of Monaco Foundation has welcomed a move by the United Nations to adopt a new resolution on drowning prevention with Monaco as co-sponsor.
Called the UN Resolution on Global Drowning Prevention, the initiative will provide a framework for action for all member countries. This topic has been near and dear to the heart of the Princess Charlene Foundation since 2012, which has publicly applauded the plan on social media.
In order to heighten awareness and as a call to action, the UN has named 25th July as World Drowning Prevention Day.
The resolution was introduced at the UN General Assembly in New York by the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the UN, Rabab Fatima, who said “Drowning is a major cause of global mortality, accounting for a greater loss of life annually than to maternal mortality or malnutrition. The imperative to act on drowning is not simply moral or political. The economic cost is equally untenable.”
Several voluntary proposals to member states have been given and include developing national drowning prevention plans, implementing recommended interventions including barriers, supervision, swim skills, rescue and resuscitation training, and boating regulation as well as introducing water safety, swimming and first aid lessons as part of school curricula.
Additionally, the resolution aims to address large data gaps by asking member states to include drowning in their vital statistics and civil registries in order to get a clearer picture of drowning-related mortality rates.
There have been 2.5 million recorded deaths caused by drowning worldwide since 1990. The vast majority, 90%, have occurred in low and middle income nations and many could have been avoided if programmes existed to teach people, especially children and adolescents, swimming basics.
Drowning impacts children and teens in rural areas, especially in Oceania and Asia, and is one of the primary causes of childhood deaths for one to nine-year-olds in these regions.
Photo source: Pixabay
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